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Success of Aussie FTTH petition shocks organiser

Australian campaigners have delivered a 270,000-strong petition to the country's government, highlighting demands for a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network rather than the proposed fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) solution.

The petition, posted on the Change.org website, is thought to be the biggest online petition ever filed in Australia.

The petition, organised by Nick Paine, states: 'As currently proposed, the Coalition’s FTTN solution relies on the existing copper lines to supply individual premises access to the National Broadband Network (NBN) over the last mile or so.

'However, copper wiring solutions are rapidly approaching a century of implementation, with its inception dating back to the 1920’s. As such, its technological limits as well as associated weaknesses are rapidly developing.'

While the Australian government's decision is likely to save the country as much as AU$15 billion, Paine points out that this would only be a short-term saving as an upgrade would inevitably be required in future.

He said: 'Having lived abroad for several years I have witnessed first-hand how far behind Australia is in this respective infrastructure. Your party’s claim to the success of FTTN implementation in other countries such as the UK/USA are irrelevant with said nations already seeking options to move on from this out-dated technology.

'So why position Australia and our future generations behind the rest of the world’s leading nations with a technology that they themselves are already decommissioning?'

Paine is reportedly shocked by the popularity of the petition, having initially thought it would gain no more than a 'few thousand signatures'.

Global carrier GTT Communications has been selected by Jisc, the provider of digital services for the UK research and education community, to provide high-speed internet transit for the Janet network.

One of the leading national research and education networks in the world, Janet supports the innovation, research and learning of approximately 18 million UK college and university users. The Janet network is also the operator in the UK for eduroam, the international wireless roaming service for the education community that supports more than 70 million users around the world.